Political pressure on Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has intensified after a Madrid judge ordered his wife, Begoña Gómez, to stand trial on corruption-related charges.
Investigating judge Juan Carlos Peinado also ordered Gómez to surrender her passport, barred her from leaving Spain and instructed her to report to court twice a month. A date for the jury trial has not yet been set.
Gómez faces allegations of influence peddling, corruption in business dealings, embezzlement and misappropriation of funds. The case centres on claims that she used her position as the prime minister’s wife to advance professional projects connected to a university programme in Madrid.
She denies wrongdoing, while Sánchez has repeatedly described the proceedings as politically motivated and part of a campaign by the right and far right to damage his government.
The investigation began in 2024 following a complaint by Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, a self-styled trade union with links to Spain’s far right and a history of pursuing prominent figures through the courts.
Members of the Spanish government and the Socialist Workers’ Party, known as the PSOE, have criticised the travel restrictions as excessive, arguing that Gómez is permanently accompanied by a police security detail and therefore presents little risk of fleeing.
The order has also prompted criticism from police unions and scrutiny of Peinado’s conduct by Spain’s judicial governing body. Gómez has appealed against the restrictions.
Cases widen around Sánchez’s circle
The proceedings against Gómez are part of a wider series of cases involving people close to Sánchez, although the prime minister has not personally been charged in any of them.
Police searched the PSOE’s Madrid headquarters on 27 May, seeking documents and electronic records as part of an investigation into alleged attempts to interfere with police and judicial proceedings involving Socialist figures.
The authorities clarified that the operation was focused on obtaining specified material rather than conducting a general search of the party’s offices. The investigation involves former party officials, lawyers, a businessman and a police officer.
Former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is separately under investigation over alleged influence peddling and money laundering connected to the €53 million state rescue of the airline Plus Ultra during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Zapatero, who led Spain between 2004 and 2011, denies any wrongdoing.
A more serious blow came from the conviction of José Luis Ábalos, Sánchez’s former transport minister and one-time senior PSOE official.
Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced Ábalos on 22 June to 24 years and three months in prison for offences including membership of a criminal organisation, bribery, embezzlement and influence peddling. The case concerned illegal commissions linked to public contracts for protective equipment during the pandemic.
Ábalos’s former adviser, Koldo García, was sentenced to 19 years and eight months in the same case.
Sánchez’s brother, musician David Sánchez, has also stood trial in Badajoz over allegations that a public-sector position created in 2017 was tailored for him. He denies influence peddling and misuse of public office.
The trial concluded on 9 June and the court has yet to deliver its judgment. Public prosecutors requested his acquittal, arguing that the evidence presented did not establish a criminal offence.
Government survives, but pressure grows
Although none of the cases directly implicates Pedro Sánchez, they have further weakened a minority government that depends on support from smaller Catalan, Basque and left-wing parties.
On 25 June, Spain’s lower house approved a non-binding resolution calling on Sánchez to resign. The measure passed by 177 votes to 171, highlighting the government’s increasingly fragile parliamentary position, although it did not force the prime minister from office.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People’s Party, has repeatedly demanded Sánchez’s resignation and early elections.
Sánchez, however, maintains that he will remain in office until the next general election, which must be held by August 2027 unless parliament is dissolved earlier.
Removing him through a vote of no confidence would require an absolute majority of MPs to agree not only on his dismissal but also on a replacement prime minister. Spain’s fragmented opposition has so far been unable to unite behind a single candidate.
Recent polls place the People’s Party ahead of the PSOE, with a future conservative government likely to require support from the far-right Vox party. That prospect continues to discourage several regional parties from helping Feijóo replace Sánchez.
Sánchez’s immediate political survival therefore depends on whether he can keep his parliamentary allies together despite the growing number of legal cases surrounding his family, former ministers and party officials.
Source: CNN
